Exterior of a Restaurant at Asnieres 1887

Vincent van Gogh’s “Exterior of a Restaurant at Asnières” was painted with oil on canvas, materials that have a long history in fine art. But observe how Van Gogh deploys them. The painting’s surface is built up through visible brushstrokes, each loaded with pigment. Look closely, and you can see the ridges where the brush moved across the canvas. These impasto marks aren’t just descriptive; they’re performative. They record the energy and rhythm of the artist’s hand. The thickness of the paint emphasizes the materiality of the work, grounding the image in a sense of real, physical labor. The very directness of touch feels modern, aligned to a wider social world in which people’s work was becoming increasingly visible. Van Gogh wasn’t just representing the restaurant; he was enacting a kind of labor parallel to it. In a society that often devalued work, especially the work of artists, this was a powerful statement. He elevates the mundane, finding beauty and value in the everyday.